Posted By Mark Mace Recently i had cause to attend a very good COSHH course. On the principles learnt there smoking should not be banned in the workplace? it should be banned everywhere. it follows that if a substance is hazardous to health the first port of call is to consider eliminating the substance, therefore if all cigarettes, cigars and pipes were banned from sale then the hazardous substance has been removed. Following Doctors advice that smoke from cigarettes contains 63? harmfull components surely the strain on the economy is greater than say other classified drugs, therefore a total ban (as is already in place for other classified drugs) across the country would be beneficial to the country as a whole (no need for advertising or laws or enforcement), the savings to the economy would possibly outweigh the loss of the revenue from tax. Yet all i see is the government putting more regulations in place for me to monitor compliance, & spend more money on signs. Am i looking at this the wrong way.Surely prevention is better than cure. I smoke by the way and would love to quit, unfortunately due to the stress i am under from just getting one piece of legislation dealt with and then having three more is not helping. sorry about the rambling why cant they just ban its sale completely.

Posted By Rob T Drinking water in large quantities can kill you! There's no such thing as a poisonous substance - just a poisonous dose! Anyone who taught you that the "63" substances are all capable of killing you in those doses is an imbecile and deserves to be banned from ever uttering such drivel. Not one of those substances has ever been confirmed to have killed anyone from smoking - it is the tar residue that can give you cancer, everything else is a myth. I presume the trainers told you that radio masts are just as dangerous and sniffing a barmaids apron will get you drunk! Where do we find these incompetents - I'd ask for my money back!

Posted By garyh However if you put the word "toxic" instead of "poisonous" the statement has more validity. As for banning smoking, I believe in freedom of choice. As a non smoker I would allow adults to smoke as much as they want to in private - or take any other substance for that matter.

Posted By Mark Mace a small correction, the supplier of my coshh course didnot mention ciggarettes at all. the 63 substances was a reference from something else i read and i may have remembered the wrong figure. As for dictatorships - is not that what we already have - oops should not say that. i was attempting to show the link to COSHH and the relevant lack of thinking behind government policy on this subject, wether rightly or wrongly. as stated i do smoke. regards and merry xmas to all